Fu Chuchu

She holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies (Institute of Development Studies/University of Sussex, UK) , a Master’s Degree in Sociology (China Agricultural University, China) and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Development and Rural Studies (China Agricultural University, China). 

During these academic training, she has undertaken fieldwork in rural areas in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Henan, Beijing in China to examine the domestic policy outcomes of poverty reduction and rural development as well as to evaluate the impacts of the community-based development project funded by foreign donors in Yunnan Province. She worked for the Center for Sustainable Development, GIZ and China  International Center for Economic and Technical Exchange, MOFCOM as an intern, so that she gains hands-on experience in development project management, impact evaluation and policy research.    

Prior starting her PhD studies, she conducts research regarding the impacts of globalizing China through foreign aid and investment. Her master thesis is about the knowledge sharing and practical challenges in the Chinese poverty alleviation projects in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Tanzania, focusing on the role of Chinese professionals and specialists in the transnational practices. As a research assistant, she has worked at Institute of Development Studies on the Chinese investment on critical extractive sectors in the DRC, and she also engaged in a research project concerning Chinese sustainable financing on multilateral development cooperation at the College of Global Agriculture and International Development in China.    

Her current project continues the research focus on the ‘Global China’, particularly the development of hospitality industry in Europe. This study focuses on the digitally-mediated production of culinary spaces in Düsseldorf, exploring urban influences and digital workings embedded in the contemporary Chinese investment. It investigates the ways in which Chinese actors reshape the urban aesthetics and build the cultural imaginary in the digital age while redirecting the spatial arrangement. It attempts to contribute to the understanding of the interplay between spatial production, digital attention/fame, and capital expansion, manifested by Chinese multi-actors (including investors, social media platform, entrepreneurs,expatriates, tourists) within a transnational context.

• Global China
• Transnational Foodscape
• Platformisation and Digital Fame